The Dogs of Toronto Animal Services South

The Indy was on this past weekend at the CNE and so TAS South was closed to the public. These summer closures (the next big one will be when the CNE comes to town) are always unfortunate because warm weather weekends often bring in lots of potential adopters. Losing a whole bunch of those weekends to event closures means some dogs end up staying in the shelter much longer before the right person sees them and adopts them out. But every location has its trade-offs so it's just something we have to live with.

Since I didn't get a chance to go in this past weekend it means no new photos this week, but this gives me a chance to do something I've been meaning to do for a while and that's to re-edit and migrate some of the old posts from One Bark at a Time over here to Pound Dogs. Yes, it's cheating but I also like to think of it as recycling. Those posts are basically gathering internet dust over at the old blog whereas bringing them over here will give them another kick at the can. I'll be reposting them here sporadically over the next few weeks.

So, for those who may have read the posts in their first incarnation, please excuse the summer reruns (I'll put a "repost" notification at the top of each one). For those reading them for the first time, I hope you enjoy them.

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A request

The reason for this blog is to help get specific dogs adopted from TAS but equally important is to try to normalize the idea of shelter dogs being just as good and just as desirable as any other dogs including those which are regularly merchandised by backyard breeders, puppy millers and those few remaining pet store owners who still feel a need to sell live animals. The single greatest stigma shelter animals still face is the belief that shelter animals are substandard animals. Anyone who has had enough experience with shelter animals knows this is untrue but the general public hasn't had the same experiences you've had. They see a nice dog photo in a glossy magazine and too many of them would never think of associating that dog with a dog from a shelter. After all, no one abandons perfectly good dogs, right? Unfortunately, as we all know, perfectly good dogs are abandoned all the time.

The public still too often associates shelter dogs with images of beat up, sick, dirty, severely traumatized animals and while we definitely sometimes see victims such as these, they are certainly not the majority and, regardless, even the most abused animals can very often be saved and made whole again.

Pound Dogs sometimes discusses the sad histories some of the dogs have suffered. For the most part, though, it tries to present the dogs not as victims but as great potential family members. The goal is to raise the profiles of animals in adoption centers so that a potential pet owner sees them as the best choice, not just as the charity choice.

So, here's the favour I'm asking. Whenever you see a dog picture on these pages you think is decent enough, I'd like you to consider sharing it on Facebook or any other social media sites you're using (I know many of you do this already and thank you for that). And when you share it, please mention that the dog in the photo is a shelter dog like so many other shelter dogs waiting for a home. If we can get even five percent of the pet buying public to see shelter dogs differently, to see how beautiful they are and how wonderful they are, and to consider shelter dogs as their first choice for a new family member, we can end the suffering of homeless pets in this country.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------